Lewis Hamilton has made no secret of the battle he has waged with the Mercedes W04 car so far this season, and he explained further how it was difficult to fine tune and perfect the setup of the car despite scoring his second pole position of the season at the British Grand Prix.

The 2008 world champion posted a fastest time of 1:29.607 – a full four-tenths clear of closest rival Nico Rosberg – to seal his second pole position at Silverstone with a stunning lap in the dying moments of qualifying. However, he hasn’t had it so easy this weekend.

“I really have been struggling with the car, trying to get it to behave the way I want it to,” Hamilton explained in the post-race press conference.

“We have a great car, but to fine tune seems a little bit harder. We made the right steps and made a change into qualy which helped.”

Hamilton praised the Mercedes W04 further, believing that it is better than his previous four cars – all with McLaren.

“This is the first time since 2008 that I’ve really had a car I can compete with.”

It is worth noting that in this time, Hamilton still won many races and even had a shot at the championship come the final round in 2010. Regardless, he is evidently delighted to be a part of the Mercedes setup, and this pole will certainly go down as one of his most important.

It’s known as “Carburetor Day” – or in its simplest term, just “Carb Day.”

But the final day of on-track action Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway before Sunday’s 102nd Running of the Indianapolis 500 is so much more.

Especially on NBCSN, which will have wall-to-wall live coverage starting Friday morning.

Here’s how Friday’s schedule breaks down:

11 a.m. ET: Carb Day kicks off with the final practice for Sunday’s Indy 500. The session will last one hour in length.

12 p.m. ET: We’re going racing! Strap in for coverage of the Indy Lights’ Freedom 100 on the famous Brickyard.

1:30 p.m. ET: We’ll have coverage of the annual IndyCar Pit Stop Challenge. Which teams have the best – and most importantly, fastest and accurate – pit crews? Team Penske has won 10 of the last 12, including the last two years edging out Schmidt Peterson Motorsports each time. Who can potentially beat them this year?

1) 2016 Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi will discuss how it used to upset him when people suggested he “backed into” his big win and how he didn’t really feel vindicated until he qualified on the front row for last year’s race.
2) Defending 500 winner Takuma Sato, the first Japanese driver to ever win at Indianapolis, discusses the impact of his big win personally and professionally, particularly back in his native land.
3) An essay by Robin Miller on Stefan Wilson giving up his ride last year to allow Fernando Alonso to race for Andretti Autosport.